Your Creator; the Almighty who has made you in HIS image; who sacrificed HIS Son for you; the one who designed you for a purpose; is calling you! He desires to have a relationship with you! Will you answer HIM?
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Here's A Thought...

HERE'S A THOUGHT...Here are some "THOUGHTS" that will hopefully answer some of the questions that you may have about what the Bible has to say about our everyday lives. These articles are here to provoke thought; provide answers, guidance and resources; all in an effort to bring you into a closer relationship with your Heavenly Father!

GOD BLESS and KEEP SMILIN'!

Friday, June 29, 2012

Church

Ok, so it’s Sunday morning and the alarm has just gone
off. You’ve spent all week getting up early for work, or staying up late for
work; whatever the situation, how nice it would be to just stay in bed and have
some time for yourself. I know for me personally, the very first coherent thought
of my Sunday morning a lot of times is; “Lord, please give me the strength to get my lazy butt out of bed this
morning because quite honestly; I don’t want to!” That’s one of my first coherent thoughts. Usually my first
thought at the sound of the alarm is; “I don’t want to go to school mommy!” But
that just brings up a whole other basket of my issues.

For so many of us, and quite honestly for most of my
life; church is viewed as a chore, a have too. Similar to going to work, it’s
just something I have to do. Maybe you’ve
have been told you have to go to church or you’ll go to hell. Maybe you go to
church not because you want to be there, but you are just trying to set a good
example for your children, and you really aren’t sure why. Maybe it’s a social
expectation, all your friends go to church, or maybe the people you work with
go to church; it could be your neighbors and you just want to fit into the social
group. Maybe you go because your parents make you; or you go because your kids
make you. There are so many BAD
reasons we go to church and I want to help you break that mindset and help to
give you one that will hopefully change your life!

Communion

I want to take just a few minutes and remove the
traditions and the “religion” from the word communion for just a minute. Merriam-Webster
defines communion as: an act or instance of sharing; intimate fellowship or rapport.
Communion comes from the Latin communis which
means mutual participation. Webster gives synonyms of: rapport, fellowship and
rapprochement. Rapprochement meaning to have cordial relations; from the Latin appropiare which translates to bring
together.

I think that for most of my life and for so many of us;
we have got the ritual down of going to church and taking communion, but we have missed out on the part of being in communion. I want to challenge
you to begin to evaluate why it is you are going to church. Evaluate what it is
you are searching for. Not what it is you want or not getting from the church;
but what it is you can bring to church in your communion.

Church is about communion; communion is about
relationship. Church is the ultimate opportunity to gather as a body of Christ
in unity and support; in fellowship and relationship. Church is the ultimate
expression and vision of family as our Heavenly Father designed it!

Attitude

Boy! There’s a word that will cause every one’s butts to
tighten…attitude! I’m just going to make a brief statement and then I’m going
to move on to giving you a right attitude about church. You determine your
attitude; it is a decision. A decision you make. You can blame it on your
ethnicity (I used to blame my temper on being Irish). You can blame it on your
upbringing, or on your environment, or on your circumstances all you want. But
until you accept that your attitude is your decision, your attitude will never
change.

So here is a different attitude towards church: How about
church as the perfect, weekly family reunion. Not like the family reunion’s
that my wife and I have avoided for years; but real, honest, open family
reunions. I look forward to getting up on Sunday morning and going to a reunion
with my Christian family! After working all week with many that have no faith
in Christ or if they are professing it, they sure aren’t walking it! I look forward
to seeing my Christian brothers and sisters that I haven’t seen in a week;
hearing about their pain’s and their joy’s, their struggles and their triumphs!
I look forward to sharing with those whom I genuinely care about and they genuinely
care about me. I look forward to the relationships.

And
as an added bonus I get praise and worship with those that I am in communion
with; to sing, to pray, to gather as one body in Christ. And if that isn’t
enough…I get to hear from an anointed teacher that is going to share with me
wisdom from God’s Word and help me to better understand my Heavenly Father, His
son Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit; while still helping me to understand my
place in this world and my place in His body.

I look forward to going to
Church; to spend time in communion with fellow Christians who are all searching
for a greater relationship with Christ while still learning to navigate life;
with an attitude of joy, excitement and anticipation of what is to come!

I pray that we all
constantly evaluate why we go to church. That we are all able to put church in
God’s perspective; that we are able to evaluate not only what we are getting
out of church but what we are bringing to church. May the Holy Spirit guide us,
lead us and teach us as we strive to discover what it is to be in church. -Amen

Additional Thought!

Make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
2 Peter 1:5-8

Please Comment!

Let's talk, leave comments! Question? Let's open a dialogue. Suggestions for a topic or just want to chat! Send me an e-mail and we'll give it some thought! heresathought4u@gmail.com